Breast Cancer Chronicals, Post-Op Update

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness,
so that Christ's power may rest on me."
2 Corinthians 12: 9   

 

Oh how you’ve loved us, and we are so very grateful.  We are humbled and blessed and overwhelmed.  Every time I feel the urge to hide in (or under) my bed, somebody’s love helps pull back the covers. 

Thank you for the surgery and recovery love.  Thank you for buying t-shirts, sending messages, inviting the kids along for fun outings, packing our mailbox with cards and care packages, sitting with me, baking up DELICIOUS meals, babysitting our kids, making me giggle, washing my hair, getting mammograms, filling vases with flowers, and blessing us with gift cards for everything from pizza to Target.  You are a creative, thoughtful and generous bunch and we hope all that love will be lavished right back on each of you.  You are something else. 

Thanks to these dear to me ones who were waiting in the lobby at 5AM on surgery morning.

Most of all, thank you for praying.  It is your greatest gift. 

My surgery went well, and Mark was blessed with many visitors who sat beside him, prayed with him and made him laugh.  After almost ten hours, my rock star surgeons called the surgery successful and the cancer no more.

 

Under the care of some angelic nurses, I spent a couple days in ICU and then was moved to a regular room for the rest of the week.   The pain was all kinds of crazy and the nausea rough, but the meds were flowing and the naps plentiful.  With the help of my forever boyfriend, parents and dear friends, I took first tentative steps into recovery.   

 

Now, I am three weeks into a 4-5 week recovery, and getting stronger every day.  We are taking it day by day, fighting away fear, balancing rest and a longing for normal, and counting victories. 

The pathology reports from my surgery revealed additional cancer in my lymph nodes, and different results on the type of cancer and factors that were feeding it than initial pre-op reports.  My surgeons made a game time decision to continue.  Next is four months of “aggressive” chemo, followed by lower doses for a year, and then a chemo pill for five years. Sometime soon I won’t need shampoo. 

 

Chemo. Chemo. Chemo.  It’s one scary word, isn’t it?  I’ve been processing it for a few weeks and the emotions have ebbed and flowed.

As I’ve been processing , the Lord’s been gently reminding me to look back on the scrapbook of our last several years. 

We’ve followed Him out of our comfort zones to Zimbabwe, Haiti, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Mexico for mission trips.  We followed His call into domestic and scary international military deployments.  We followed Him to China, as we stepped into the great unknown of adoption.   We followed His leading to say yes to minor and complex medical needs, and have spent two years trembling, yet trusting for Evie’s health, in hospitals in two states. 

Each and every time, we worried that our feet would fail.  Each time, though we had a thousand doubts, we trusted anyway, and God came through. Each time mountains have loomed, or the water has felt deep, when the future felt dark and impossible, He was near.  He provided.  He loved us lavishly.  He made it clear that the waves and wind still know His name.  He steadied us.  He unearthed treasures.  He taught us to dance in the minefields. He peeled back layers of our hearts.  Each time, He left us in awe, increasingly more aware of His bigness.

 

Next, we’ll follow Him, as a family, into chemo.  And tonight, as we prepare for my chemo port placement tomorrow, and chemo treatments to begin on April 19^th, we remember that He’s been good, with ways much higher than our own.

Are we scared?  Yep.
Emotional?  Big time.    
Feeling in control and planned?   Nope.

But we trust, because the Lord’s done much beautiful work in us. He’s prepared us to expectantly surrender to His design.

Victories:         

-My tumors are gone!  The cancer in my breasts was evicted through the miracles of medicine.

-Blue Cross Blue Shield still carries us.  A miracle.

-Four weeks of very intimate, sweet care by our two out of town moms.  (So grateful to my mother-in-law, Kathy, who leaves Sunday.)

-I drove for the first time today and even washed my own hair!

-I have an amazing team of doctors and really feel confident in my new oncologist.

-I feel loved and carried by my wildly creative and loving, cheerleading prayer warriors.

Prayer Requests:

-Keep praying for our little buddy, Drew.  Pray for a strong body with no extra illnesses so he can keep fighting his own cancer.

-Pray for our brother-in-law, Randy, as he prepares to begin incredibly challenging radiation. We dread it for him, but trust that he’ll soon add the title survivor to his resume.

-I’m having some increasing rather than decreasing pain/nerve/function issues with the arm that was operated on for lymph node removal.  Praying for full recovery.

-Pray for my head and heart as we prepare for chemo. 

-Pray for my body to be pain free and strong by April 19^th. 

-Pray for our kids as they continue to process their mommy being sick. 

-Pray for Mark, who carries great burden.

-That many would see that it is only God that carries us.  I love my brave socks, but they are just colorful and cozy.   

 

Courage, dear hearts.